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INFORMATION FOR

A&P Voting

Overview

Credit: Michael Marsland

Voting for appointment and promotions is an important responsibility of YSM and Departmental A&P Committees. For the YSM A&P Committees, this is coordinated by the OAPD. For the departments, this is coordinated by the faculty affairs departmental teams under the leadership of faculty affairs vice chairs and department chairs.

Voting Eligibility

Professors in the Traditional Track, Investigator Track, Clinician-Scientist Track, and the Clinician Educator-Scholar Track have full voting rights on appointments and promotions to all ranks in all tracks. Professors in the Academic Clinician Track have full voting rights on appointments, reappointments, and promotions to all ranks in the Academic Clinician Track.

Associate professors with tenure may vote on all ranks in all tracks except for the rank of professor. Assistant and associate professors on term appointments in the Traditional, Investigator, Clinician-Scientist, and Clinician Educator-Scholar tracks and professors in the Academic Clinician Track may be invited by the professors in their departments to vote in their departments on appointments and promotions to ranks and tracks below or equivalent to their own. Assistant and associate professors in the Academic Clinician Track may be invited by the professors in their departments to vote on appointments in ranks equal to or below their own within their own track. Assistant and associate professors on term in any track may not vote on the reappointment to a rank equal to their own.

Absentee ballots are not accepted in department voting. Regardless of rank, faculty with secondary appointments with a department or school may not vote on promotions or appointments to tenure. Recommendations for appointments or promotions to all ladder ranks above assistant professor are submitted for action to the appropriate appointment and promotion committee after a majority affirmative vote by the faculty qualified by rank and track to vote in the applicable department. Since a majority of those present and eligible to vote is necessary and sufficient to bring an appointment forward to the next level, abstentions have the same effect as votes against the appointment or promotion. All voting on appointments and promotions must be done with secret ballots.

Research scientists and senior research scientists cannot vote on ladder faculty appointments, but they may, if the department wishes, vote on research faculty appointments up to and including the rank they hold, though they may not vote on reappointment to ranks equivalent to their own.

Voting Processes

Those who are eligible to vote should have the ability to review materials prior to presentation of the cases. Materials should be accessed through Interfolio RPT or some comparable secure document management system.

Cases being considered should be presented and discussed. This can be in person or remotely if those attending remotely are connected by video and audio in a confidential setting where only they are able to see and hear the discussion. During the meeting, the eligible faculty vote by closed ballot on the approval of the appointment, reappointment, or promotion. If being done virtually, the most common voting platform utilized for this is Poll Everywhere (process questions can directed to OAPD).

Action shall be by majority of those eligible to vote and who are present for the case presentation and discussion. Faculty may vote Yes (approve), No (disapprove), or Abstain. Absentee ballots may not be counted. Recommended minimum quorums for voting are as follows:

  • YSM A&P committee voting:
    • Term Appointments & Promotions Committee: 4 voting members
    • Senior Appointments & Promotions Committee: 6 voting members
  • YSM departmental voting (whichever of the following is smaller is recommended minimum for quorum):
    • N=15 eligible voters for the rank being voted on
    • 50% of eligible voters for departments where this is less than the above stated number (but cannot be less than N=4)
Minutes of all meetings at which appointments, reappointments, and promotions are formally voted on must include the names of faculty in attendance, eligible to vote, and and the aggregated counts on each candidate. The Department Faculty Vote form or other departmental memo from the chair should be complete.

A&P Voting Documents